College Representatives/switch
<< Back to College Representatives Please Create a new third level header and write up how and where your University uses Firefox! If your university doesn't use Firefox, but you tried to convert them, talk about what you tried and what worked/didn't work. We hope that this list will both list who uses it, and help us come up with 'strategies' for people to use in approaching universities to switch. Baylor University In December 2004 I spoke with Student Technology Support staff and talked about the benefits of Firefox. They have always been committed to including an alternate browser, but they had been using Netscape 6 for the longest time. After speaking with them, they rolled out a new image that included both Firefox and the Mozilla Suite. These are by no means the default browser, but Firefox is in Quick Launch on the taskbar. This change affected over 400 computers and kiosks on campus, and a recent campaign with the Business School Technology staff resulted in their switch as well -- another 100 computers. Also, a hint for other schools -- start a Facebook group for Firefox users. You'd be surprised how many people either already do use it, or want to find out more about it. High Point University I was talking with some of the IT staff and they informed me that buried somewhere in the start menu is Firefox. It's not that easy to find nor default, but per-user settings can make it that. I am thinking that a concerted effort on my and a few other people's behalf (possibly through our Unix User s Group) might help people change. -- User:Lumiere Columbia University http://www.columbiaspectator.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2005/03/24/424272d3ed96a Anonymous College/University "my school gets rebates, free computer equipment, deals on site licensing, speakers and crap to come out, all sorts of incentives from MS, but the requirement is they have to be an all MS shop. They canned the few computers running Netscape, the Macintoshes got relegated to being used in the 3rd floor lab with the old Compaq Deskpro PII 400s still running Win2k and cut off from the network" Mansfield University I have made great progress on getting students to switch their browsers, especially when it comes to the spyware and pop-up issue. The only problem is that the university has now made IE the only browser students can use for taking tests through BlackBoard. Professors used to have the option for regulating the settings, but now the PA SSHE has changed that. I am hoping that at the next meeting I have with IT, some convincing can be done and the change can be reversed and FX will start to get loaded on the lab computers. I will keep everyone updated. BEST TACTIC for SPREADING FX: Information on business cards left in labs and when talking with people. I also introduce the browser to students when I am using the campus wifi and they walk over to talk with me. --Bigjake2005 07:24, 28 Mar 2005 (EST) University of Pittsburgh Bug 285180 is a bug I've filed for Pitt's crappy JS. As for switching, when I contacted them, I got a standard response of: The Lab department will update the computers as needed and, but only after extensive testing. They will consider including Mozilla products (along with many others) for the next build generation. I haven't tried a second time, but if I can come up with a fix to Bug 285180 (they don't seem to want to fix it themselves), I will. --SteelerFan 15:58, 3 Apr 2005 (EDT) University of Illinois at Chicago The following is part of something that was sent out in an email to all UIC students and was posted in a link on the main page of the university as well: New Security Flaws in Microsofts Internet Explorer Prompt the ACCC to Recommend Use of Mozilla Firefox Due to recent reports of un-patched critical flaws in the Internet Explorer (IE) Web browser that is shipped with Microsoft Windows, the ACCC is urging everyone at UIC to use an alternate browser whenever possible. The ACCC is recommending that people install and use Mozilla Firefox in place of IE. Firefox is highly standards compliant and can be used in most situations. Unfortunately, there are some Web pages on the Internet that will not work with anything other that IE in which case you may be forced to use IE to view those Web pages, but you should try to keep IE usage to a minimum. Mozilla Firefox for Windows or Macs is free and can be downloaded at: http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/ ACCC Security Villanova University All of the computers in the labs in our science building have Firefox on them. It's not set as the default, but there's a shortcut right on the desktop for it. I also believe that it is installed on the laptop that are given to the Engineering majors (I'm not positive though, I'm CSC and bought my laptop myself.) I do know quite a few people who use it, and most of my CSC professors use it. One of my professors remarked during class, "If you're not using Firefox, you're missing out." On a slightly off-topic note, a fun thing I like to do is turn on the User-Agent in headers in Thunderbird (it's somewhere in the tips and tricks) and see what client different people use to send e-mail. I've seen a few people using Thunderbird, and was of course pleasantly surprised. One of my converts came about by me carrying the NYT ad into the lounge the day it came out; when people asked "What is that?" I was happy to explain. Duke University http://www.chronicle.duke.edu/vnews/display.v/ART/2004/11/09/4190bcf03a61d?in_archive=1 University of Wyoming http://www.uwyo.edu (I don't know what this means, maybe the previous person was a vandal when he repalced the Duke University news-link with this url... --Tom talk/Bliki 22:39, 13 Apr 2005 (EDT))